Staying in Sports for the Right Reason

As I look ahead to the fall and my final year at Harvard as an undergraduate, one thing is certain: I'm going to swim next year for the Crimson. I am going to be a four-year varsity athlete and a four-time letter-winner.

Since the age of six, I have competed year-round in the sport that I love. Swimming, like other athletic pursuits, has its benefits. I have stayed healthy, fit and out of trouble. I've traveled, met and motivated young people my age, and I have learned how to set goals and achieve them in the face of sickness, poor performance, and really cold water. Simply put, I've become accustomed to continually raising the bar, while at the same time making new friends and making memories.

But all things change once you're in college, especially after three years. The team that you started out on is not the team you are now a part of. Policies change, attitudes change, social circles are turned around and inside out.

After three years, one is essentially part of a new team, with a new core and a set of new traditions. The coaching staff might be different, or those coaches might see you differently, and it is guaranteed your perception of the coaches has changed. The need for acceptance and new friends that you might have had as a first-year has probably lessened. It's a new team, with different coaches and different teammates. Therefore, your reasons for going to practice and wanting to continue to identify with this group have to change right along with everything else.

There are always valid reasons to continue to compete and participate in Harvard athletics. And for some, there are as many equally compelling reasons not to continue.

For those student-athletes of the Class of 2002, the reasons for finishing out their fourth year will differ. There are women chasing after another national title and men hoping to break into the nation's elite top-ten rankings. Some will do it because they love spending time with their teammates, others because it's the best way to be part of a party on Saturday night. Some simply want one last hurrah before heading off to Wall Street or Med. School.

Unfortunately, some of my classmates will do it for the worst possible reason. They are afraid to go through life without the comfort of a familiar routine, that safe-space, a well-known "challenge.” It's easier for them to keep going through the motions than it is to step outside themselves and try something new.

The reasons I'll continue are quite clear to me, and distinct from those already mentioned.

I am here to finish what I started. I'm here to see my goals to fruition. As for any other student-athlete, some things have worked and some things haven't. Now's the time to makes positive changes.

It is my responsibility and my privilege to pass on words of encouragement and to give the same congratulatory cheers and high-fives to underclassmen that will be in the process of realizing their true potential for the first time, just as I was three years prior. I need to reinvigorate those same feelings in myself and achieve at an even greater level. I need to make it happen. I owe it to my parents, my brother and sister, and family and friends, who unconditionally believe in me. I owe it to myself.

As a friend and former teammate once told me, I shouldn't be afraid to realize that right now, it's my time.